Bleach: Light and Darkness
by StarcraftWOOT
Summary: two hundred and fifty years after the fall of Aizen, a young boy by the name of Tsubasa Masayoshi meets a hollow and a shinigami shortly after his death. What he doesn't know is that a new threat has slowly risen from the darkest pits, and that this enemy's taken a special interest in him. Moderate amounts of OC's, will try to keep pairings out of the story, or minimally explored


Bleach: Light and darkness

Chapter one

_There are so many different people in this universe. All different colors, shapes, sizes. But they all have the same eyes. Eyes with the capacity to fill with hope, doubt, loneliness, despair, and Joy. I feel that, if only we can look past our petty differences, we'll find our understanding there, in our eyes._

Tsubasa Yasashi sighed, looking to the city below him. He'd been dead for… A day? A week? He wasn't sure anymore. He remembered dying, of course, and held no regrets about it. A child had fallen into the path of a subway train, which he had jumped in to save. He'd managed to throw the child onto the platform, in the nick of time, but he couldn't get out of the way. His attempt to jump back on the platform was cut short as his knee caught on the wall of the subway tracks, and the train sped into him, crushing him.

Except… He never felt the impact, and was quite surprised to watch the train moving below him. For a moment, the pain of realizing his death hit him, before he saw the child. She was crying, holding her mother, as her mother gently comforted her. "Oh, we owe you… so much. I will find out your name, I promise." The mother says, sobbing, looking in the direction of where Tsubasa was.

Tsubasa sighed again, absentmindedly playing with his blonde, unruly mess of hair. "Another knot…" He muttered to himself, sighing. He hadn't been able to get a comb in the past few days, and it showed in the condition of his hair. "I didn't even know spirits needed to groom their hair… or maybe I'm just a weird spirit." He said, chuckling at the admittedly weak joke. He'd had no company these past few days save for the occasional bird or dog – those seemed to see him, at least, even if they weren't always friendly, many hissing at his approach, or barking loudly at him. It hurt Tsubasa, to see the creatures he'd once so loved working with, now fearing his approach as though he was the reaper himself.

"Grandfather… What do I do now?" Tsubasa asked, holding a small box in his hands. His grandfather's possession, he absentmindedly poked at the lock. He still remembered that conversation, so long ago, where he agreed to keep it with him, always. "_Remember, boy, don't open this box until that time, okay?_" He could almost hear his grandfather say, remembering his voice. It was a firm, strong voice, which held an almost melancholy edge to it at all times. Tsubasa had been surprised to find he did not join his Grandfather's spirit at the time of his death, and the disappointment cut Tsubasa like a knife when he realized he would not get to speak with his grandfather even after his death. "Is this all death is? An eternal loneliness?" Tsubasa asked himself, "Or did I commit some wrong I had the indignity to forget, and live in this eternal limbo as punishment?"

Tsubasa felt a rush of wind behind him, and stretched absentmindedly. At the very least, he could move faster than he could as a human, and he still did find some pleasure in the basics, running and jumping. Now, as the only thing left to entertain him, he found he quite enjoyed such things, and his "body" for lack of a better term, had improved in health as a result. Walking away, he felt another rush of wind-

"_Wait a minute… I haven't felt the wind since becoming a spirit._" Tsubasa realized, eyes widening. Jumping upwards, he found out quickly, as a scythe-like blade struck from underneath him, that this decision was the only reason he still possessed the lower half of his body.  
"Oh? Hyehehehe. And here I thought this was going to be a quick lunch." A baritone, threatening voice said, behind Tsubasa. "Why don't you sit still though, huh? I've had a hard day."

"I'm sorry, am I in your way? I can move from your – territory, or whatever, if you'd like." Tsubasa said, seemingly scared, but talking in a fairly calm voice.

"Huh? What is this shit? I just tried to cut you in half. It's fairly obvious what I want from you. I want your soul… and maybe some screaming, while you're at it."

Tsubasa turned to face the creature, and had to fight the urge to vomit. What was before him resembles a great, white worm, covered in what appeared to be tiny maggots scattered across its carapace. Two scythe-like blades protruded from its arms, and the face appeared to be that of a snake's, covered in what appeared to be a helmet of bone, with angry yellow eyes.

"Look, whatever you want from me, take it. I am sure neither of us really want to hurt each other." Tsubasa says, putting his hands up in front of him. "I don't want either of us to have any trouble." Tsubasa said, as he looked in the creatures eyes. "_Each person's eyes are the same, no matter how monstrous, no matter how evil they might appear to be. The naked spirit of the creature, filled with innocence and purity, shows through the eyes like radiant light through a window._" Tsubasa mentally recites to himself, looking into the creatures eyes. No fear shone in Tsubasa's, nor did doubt, sadness, or anger. What showed was naked compassion.

Unfortunately, Tsubasa's eyes were illegible to the being before him. He had no idea what he was talking to, or who it was he saw in front of him.

"Kind of entertaining, kid, I give ya that, but now you're fucking annoying me. I'm going to eat you quickly, though, because you gave me a couple laughs, alright?" The hollow said, briefly advancing.

"Errrr… on second thought, see ya later, kid." The nightmarish creature said, backing up with a horrified expression, into a black void.

"What-" Tsubasa started to ask, but was too late to say anything. The creature had already disappeared.

"And now we're back at square one." Tsubasa said, with a dejected look, as he warily moved back to where he was sitting.

"Well, that was interesting…" Tsubasa said to himself. "Scary, but interesting."

"What was?" A gruff voice from behind him asked.

"Gah!" Tsubasa exclaimed, jumping three feet higher in the air. "I didn't even hear you coming…" Tsubasa says, looking back. A man dressed in black samurai gear stood in front of him, holding a blade. The man stood at a formidable 6'2, and wore a rough headband. Brown spiky hair cropped out from under it.

"Name's Kai Karasa. Pleased to meet you. And now…" Kai said, lifting his blade, he prepared to swing."Gyaaah! Look, I don't want any trouble…" Tsubasa said, dodging out of the way of his slice with a side roll.

"Calm down kid, I'm just trying to send you to the soul society." Kai scratched his head, surprised by Tsubasa's speed. "_No plus should be able to dodge a seated officer's strike… whoever he is, he's got potential to be a great shinigami…_". Kai sat down, sheathing his sword. "Ok, the big bad sword's going away for now. Let me explain…" Kai said, sitting down. Tsubasa warily did the same. "Alright, here are the basics…" Kai said, pulling out a bag of trail mix from his pouch.

"See, there are basically two kinds of spirits out there…" Kai began, before eating a bit of trail mix. "There's the good spirits, the pluses," Kai says interrupting himself as he slowly chewed through a giant handful of the trail mix "Like you. They are normally pretty nice, and look human.". Kai takes another handful of trail mix and takes a minute to finish the bag. "Then there's the bad spirits, the hollows, those ones look monstrous in appearance, and try to eat living souls. They all have big white masks…" Kai says, taking out what seems to be a piece of jerky, and tearing into it… "and a lot of power." Kai says, taking another bite of jerky. "A shinigami's job is to eat this jerky- I mean, to send pluses to the soul society…" Kai says, hastily changing his wording "using Konso to send them there, and to kill the hollows we face with our zanpakuto, so they won't harm others. Any questions?"

Tsubasa scratched his head "Well, for one thing, how have you not gotten fat yet, eating like that?"

"Good exercise and a fast metabolism." Kai replied, not skipping a beat.

"…But I don't understand. You willingly attack these hollows. Why not just try reasoning?" Tsubasa asked.

Kai was rather surprised at this comment. It was the first time he'd heard it from a plus OR a shinigami. "They'd prefer to eat us rather than talk. Their thirst drives them.

"But they're still capable of reason. I know their hearts must be capable of overcoming such a thing." Tsubasa said. "It'd be a better solution than killing them."

"Ahhh, that's the thing. A shinigami's zanpakuto is designed to purify the soul and send it to soul society." Kai remarked.

"Yet, these hollows still feel pain, do they not? I never want to cause pain. Not to another living being."

"That's a lovely ideal, but it's a fool's dream. These hollows are incapable of reason."

"Well, I found the last one I met was reasonable enough to leave – at least, I think it was a hollow." Tsubasa remarked, remembering the creature of bone.

"What crea-uh oh…" Kai says, feeling a sickeningly noticeable reishi, as a scythe of bone appeared in front of him, appearing through a black rift opening near his feet. "Get out of the area!" Kai yells at Tsubasa, jumping away from the attack, in a backwards motion. The scythe swung, and missed Kai by the barest margin. Kai drew his zanpakuto out, and prepared to find the enemy hollow waiting for him as he turned, but saw nothing.

"Hehehe… no, you won't find me that easily, shinigami." The hollow laughed, but the laughing party could not be seen. "Even my reishi is obscured by these rifts!" The hollow's voice was heard saying. A scythe struck out from behind Kai, which he stepped to the side of, before a second came from above him, blocked by Kai's own blade, and a third striking at his side, only to be knocked up and away by a slap of Kai's hand, which caused the hollow to hiss and the scythe to recoil.

"_Maybe those are more than just weapons. Hollows normally don't carry anyways… Could it be?_" Kai thought to himself, as another rift appear in front of him. Blocking the strike, he immediately stopped another coming from behind him.

"Little pest. Well, you can handle one blade… but who said I'd leave it at that?" The hollows voice again echoed. Rather than one, but ten rifts appeared, which Kai dodged out of the way of, before ten more appeared behind him, scythes coming out as a wall of blades. Kai narrowly dodged out of the way yet again, but this time, a small cut on his shoulder showed he couldn't keep up. "Pathetic little shinigami… but a great meal in the making." The hollow's voice rang out, shrieking, as it opened up rifts again, this time, all around Kai's position, as scythes came out of the darkness.

"Heh… now I got the timing down." Kai said, as the scythe blades stabbed and slashed at Kai. Kai's hands were a blur of motion as he blocked them all, the scythes striking nothing but the metal of Kai's blade as he worked it impossibly fast.

"This is impossible!" The hollow wailed, surprised by its preys resilience. "I'm not done yet!" It screamed, creating another ten rifts around Kai. "You might be able to block ten, but can you block double that number?" The hollow asked with sadistic glee. "No, you'll tire and die, Shinigami." The hollow said, as it brought the blades in to cut Kai in half.

"That'd be true, if I had to keep blocking twenty scythes." Kai said, raising his zanpakuto and readying his blade. "but who said I had to keep blocking twenty." Kai says with a smile as the scythes of the hollow attempted to slice him to pieces. The next few seconds were a blur of motion. Steel rang against bone in a clattering display, until a spurt of blood showed that someone scored a hit. "Ahhhhhhhggggghhhh!" The hollow roared in pain, as a scythe of bone dropped to the ground below.

"This…" Tsubasa said, watching from afar "Is unreal. Neither of these people have human capabilities…" He said, awestruck. Watching as the bone blade fell to the ground, he knew that Kai had struck a hit.

"Kai…" Tsubasa muttered, a bittersweet feeling sweeping through him as he realized Kai was winning. He hoped that Kai would survive, but… he didn't like hearing the mournful cries of any living being, even if monstrous in form and nature.

2 more scythes attached to too fragile arms fell to the ground, as Kai grinned, readying his blade again. "Seventeen left, beast!" Kai yelled, readying his blade for another volley of attacks. Blocking the first, second, and third strikes with his zanpakuto, pushing the arms away, he stabbed upwards to stop the fourth, pushing it out of the way as he came down with a heavy chop on the next two, nicking but not slicing through an arm, which caused the hollow to scream in pain yet again. With a broad sweep of his blade knocking aside five more, he brought his blade behind his shoulder to stop the scythe striking there, before using a stomp of his foot on the blunt edge to stop an attack from below. "_there should be another four attacks coming…_" Kai thought, as he felt no reishi around him. He only felt some hollow reiatsu around

The kid.

Tsubasa jumped, feeling an odd sensation that he needed to do so. This sensation was proven correct as a scythe appeared where he had just been sitting, a blade that would have bisected him had he not moved. A second came for his neck, which by basic instinct he managed to avoid. Sweating, he noted in horror the third one striking from his left, which nearly cut his eye out, before seeing a fourth one from above him coming towards his stomach.

"_This is how it ends?_" Tsubasa though, seeing the awful blade which seemed to take forever to meet his stomach.

Blood showered from the scythe's strike, in a wide pattern, as it pierced through Kai's shoulder.

"S… Sorry. I forgot… you might be targeted. Kai said, a grim expression on his face, as the scythe retreated into the darkness.

"You shinigami are all alike! To think you managed to cut my arms." A sickening and familiar voice was heard, not all around them, but directly behind. Tsubasa realized with growing horror, as he looked, that he was looking directly at the hollow from earlier. The only difference, Tsubasa realized, was that he had more arms than he had previously seen. Tsubasa realized with disgust that they were obscured by the maggots on his body, previously.  
"Oh, and look, it's the stupid little plus." The hollow said with a tone of sadistic glee. "Oh, I was hoping I'd get to see youuuu." The creature said, stroking Tsubasa's back with a suddenly appearing blade, leaving a thin scar.

"_I have to grab him, and I have to get out of here._" Tsubasa picked up Kai, and, his eyes wide with terror ran, attempting to escape this beast.

"Oh, no, no, no, no." The hollow said, rifts appearing all around Tsubasa and Kai. Tsubasa stopped at that moment, and that's all that saved him, as scythes appeared all around him, one pressing on his neck, two on each limb, and a single scythe point pressed directly on the back of his head. Tsubasa barely even dared to breathe, for fear it might push him into one of these all-too deadly blades. "you're the little peacenik boy, right?" The hollow said. "What was it you said. Oh, yes, "I'm sure neither of us wants to hurt each other." The hollow said in a tone and pitch mimicking a babys. Laughing, the rifts disappeared as he himself appeared behind Tsubasa. "Okay, here's a contest." The hollow said, as Kai groaned in Tsubasa's arms. "Let's see if the little pacifist can figure out how to keep his goddamn life." The hollow said, putting the point of one of its scythes arms onto its face, as it used another to bat Kai out of Tsubasa's arms. "Push. Right there. My claws are razor sharp." The hollow said. "Come on, I'm beggin' ya. Kill me."

Tsubasa blanched, turning even whiter than he already had at this point. The hollow prodded him closer, using another of its arms. "Do it. It doesn't even have to be a big push. These babies are so sharp; they'll cut through like my mask was made of butter." The hollow said, a sinister laughter echoing from its awful mask. Tsubasa looked at the mask, and the disgusting mosaic pattern it held, and thought it was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. He couldn't see into its eyes. He saw, perhaps, a way out for him and his companion, a way to destroy this monster. And yet… He knew they were there, those emotions, which he'd seen so often in other's eyes. He cursed himself, and cursed his own philosophies, but he couldn't move. Even to hurt this terrible a creature, he couldn't bring himself to move. Tsubasa stood there, dumbfounded, able to end this creature's life with a thought, if not for his own self-made prison.

"That's what I thought, wretch." The hollow said, sneering. As it brought it's scythe back, readying it to strike. Tsubasa saw it, and saw no point to dodging. Kai was incapacitated, Tsubasa couldn't bring himself to strike out at the monster, and it wouldn't stop until both of them were dead. All he could do was wait for the final blow and make peace with his selfish, ugly self.

But the hollow continued its verbal assault. "He gave his life for you, you know. That shinigami had ten times the balls you have. And if not for you, he might have succeeded. Little peace…" the hollow said, smiling. "little peace, it's people like you that make me wish to retch. Die, please, and spare me from your little speeches, little peace. You little fool. Not everything can be solved with words. To protect something, you occasionally need to strike out. I care for nothing, and even I understand that. Gah!" The hollow screams suddenly. "Even scolding you just pisses me off. Die, little peace, and become little piecemeal!" The hollow screams, swinging it's blade at Tsubasa.

Another spray of blood appears, and yet again, Tsubasa sees Kai in front of him, stopping the strike with a now bloody hand. "You're right. He IS an idiot. Not everything can be solved without violence. It's just a dirty fact of life. Occasionally, it's you or the opponent, and those ARE the only choices." The shinigami says, bringing his fist back. "And I wish there were ten thousand like him! Because maybe then, that ridiculous, idealistic world of his…" Kai says, readying his stance "Might just come true!"

Kai swings and strikes the hollow, his fist filled with reishi, as the hollow loses a tooth. "Grrr… I'll kill you!" The hollow says, swinging its many arms at Kai, now too wounded to move out of the way. Kai closes his eyes and accepts his own death, hoping that Tsubasa, at least, would get away.

"_Remember, boy, don't open this box until that time, okay?_"

Tsubasa remembered his grandfather giving him that box. It had been right after a fight, when he found out his grandfather had been in world war two. He couldn't understand why his loving, caring, grandfather, who had taught Tsubasa so much on the value of human life, would willingly end the lives of others. He had yelled, and cried, and jumped up and down that day. His parents were angry, but his grandfather took it with grim acceptance. He never tried to turn down a single one of Tsubasa's condemnations, but he simply said "Someday, boy, you'll find out that some things need to be fought for. I always have, and will, value human life, and that's WHY I went to the war."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Tsubasa had retorted, angrily.

"Someday, boy, you'll understand…" His grandfather had said, pulling out a black, wooden box. "That sometimes, to preserve life, you have to fight for it. Remember this, boy. When you can finally understand what I mean, you can open this box. Remember, boy, don't open this box until that time, okay?"

As the hollow pulled its arm back, a silvery gleam caught its eye. "What?" The hollow reared back in surprise, as the dagger struck into its eye. Hissing in pain, the hollow reared back, giving Kai just enough time to kick it, the force of the kick sending it skidding away again. Stopping it's momentum with its legs, it moved to charge, all logical thought gone.

"You did that." Kai asked, dumbfounded by Tsubasa.

"Grandfather… You were right. If not fighting means losing those eyes, I can't allow myself to sit by…" Tsubasa says. "But… it's not dead anyways. How can we deal with this thing?

"There's only one… option." Kai said, stumbling and falling, his wounds becoming quite apparent, as he held out his blade. "You, my young friend, must become a shinigami. Normally, we'd do this transfer in a safer manner, but right now, our only option is for you to take my sword through your chest. This way, I can transfer half my power to you. Its 50/50 on whether or not you'll live through the transfer, though…" Kai said, his voice trailing off.

"It's still better than the odds of getting eaten…" Tsubasa grinned. "In case this is the last time we talk, Kai, my name is Tsubasa. Tsubasa Yasashi."

"Pleased to meet you, Tsubasa." Kai said, as he stuck his blade into Tsubasa's chest, grinning.

The hollow charged, roaring in anger. Its food had left deep wounds that even their combined reishi wouldn't fully heal. No, it wouldn't just eat them. It'd eat them slowly, listening to their screams. This thought rested fully on its mind as a cloud of energy enshrouded the two. Ignoring the energy and swinging, the hollow was surprised as its blade was stopped.

Standing in the middle of a dust cloud, wind whipping around him, was none other than Yasashi. Wearing a black Shikashusho, it could be plainly seen that the hollow's scythe was being blocked by his sword, a ridiculously huge nodachi blade stopping the scythe. Moving faster than the hollow could follow, a spurt of blood came from the creature's midsection, as Tsubasa suddenly appeared on the other side of the creature.

"You little…" The hollow said, striking out with its scythe's, only for Tsubasa to block every single attack, the scythes breaking against his blades. "You little shit!" The hollow screamed, as Tsubasa held his blade up. Jumping, the sound of metal against flesh could be heard, as Tsubasa landed on the other side of the hollow, the two halves of the creature dissipating as they fell to the ground.

"How… could I lose…To someone like you." The hollow's voice, seemingly without a physical container, could be heard asking, before even its voice faded away. It would never return.

Kai replied, not skipping a beat.

." gotten fat yet, eating like thatty...t...


End file.
